Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Earthquake shakes northern Japan

.- A strong with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck the coast on Wednesday northeast, the Meteorological Agency of Japan, but so far no reports of damage from the quake. A tsunami warning was issued to 50 feet to the northeast of Japan after the earthquake occurred about 11.45 am local time Wednesday (0245 GMT), according to the JMA (acronym in English).

"First I felt a jolt coming from below, after a strong tremor from side to side, which lasted about 20 seconds, "said Yoshiyuki Sato, an official in Kurihara city in Miyagi prefecture, about 300 kilometers from Tokyo." The quake was relatively strong, but things fell off shelves in the building of city government.

" The quake's epicenter was located about 10 kilometers from the surface, off the coast of Aomori prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported. An official of the National Police Agency said that so far no report of damage from the quake. Tohoku Electric Power said its Onagawa nuclear plant is operating normally after quake.

Tokyo Electric Power also said its power plant in the region had not been affected. The bullet trains resumed their routes in northeast Japan after stopping briefly, reported Kyodo news agency. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the most seismically active areas of the world. In the country occur about 20% of earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher occurring in the world.

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